


Numb3rs (Earth 5 Continued)

by Dragongoddess13



Series: Captain Canary and The Multiverse [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Numb3rs (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternative Universe - FBI, Bisexual Sara Lance, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Originally posted and continued from Captain Canary and The Multiverse vol 1, Pansexual Leonard Snart, Past Relationships, Secret Relationship, numb3rs Au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-09-29 05:27:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17197394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragongoddess13/pseuds/Dragongoddess13
Summary: Leonard Snart understood numbers in a way that most people couldn't. They Spoke to him, gave the world focus, made everything make sense. He used the numbers to support his sister when their father wasn't there, and when he was the numbers were there to distract him as he stood between a raging Lewis Snart and a young Lisa.Then one day he didn't have to fight anymore. Lewis was gone and the professor from the university he snuck into to sit in on classes took them in, giving them a real home for the first time since their mother died.No Leonard teaches at that same university, his sister and agent of the FBI and once again he finds he can use the number to help her. Even if she's all grown up and claims she doesn't need her big brother to protect her anymore, and with the way she handles her side arm he thinks she may be right. So maybe he could stick around the FBI for other reasons, like say, a Profiler by the name of Sara Lance?Numb3rs AU carried over and continued from Captain Canary and The Multiverse Vol. 1Earth 5Genius Snart/FBI LanceNew content starts at Part IV





	1. Earth 5 Part 1

Earth 5

Genius Leonard Snart X FBI Sara Lance

xXx

“Why exactly was your brother looking at classified case files?” John Diggle, senior agent in charge of the major crimes unit of the FBI, stared down his most junior agent, Lisa Snart.

Just over a year ago, Lisa was a law student, graduating top her class. Instead of taking the bar, however, she decided to join the FBI academy, much to the chagrin of her brother and foster father. She was a good agent, quick thinking and very capable, and her potential was only flourishing under her S.O. and his second in command Sara Lance. 

“I left them out on the kitchen table for a minute and he saw them when he came home from work.” she explained. “He has NSA security clearance though Calsci though.” she added when it looked like Diggle was about to snap at her. He stopped short, taking a deep breath. 

“Alright, fine, I’ll give you that, but what exactly is it that he thinks he can do for us?” Diggle asked looking past her to see said man speaking to his second in command in the bullpen. She laughed at something he said, surprising Diggle enough to look back at Lisa’s earnest expression. 

“He says that there’s an equation he can run that can give us a search area for our suspect. He explained it and he kind of lost me, but we’ve had no leads in weeks and I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. At the very least maybe it gives us all a chance to step back and see things differently.” 

Diggle sighed. “Alright.” he agreed. “I’ll hear him out.”

xXx

Leonard Snart was not the product of his early environment and thankfully neither was his sister. Their mother had died not long after Lisa was born and their abusive father was far from qualified to take care of them. This left Leonard to take care of Lisa, a job he came to love as she grew into a capable and beautiful young woman. Sometimes their lives didn’t make sense to him, it seemed unfair that they should be left to suffer for their father’s crimes, but Leonard stayed on his feet and fought hard for his little sister. 

Through all of it, Leonard had the numbers. Since he was young he’d always seen things in terms of numbers, understanding complex equations that made no sense to men twice his age and experience. For a while he used that gift to support his family, running numbers for bookies in the area. And then, his father went to prison and everything changed for the better. 

“They’ve been in there for awhile. How badly did I get her in trouble?” Leonard asked turning to look at the blonde woman sitting at her desk. Sara Lance, Behavioral Analyst and Field Agent. She looked at him with a soft smile. 

“I wouldn't be too worried.”  she told him. “Digs tough but fair.” she finished typing something up on her computer then turned to face him fully. “So, Lisa said you might have something that could help us?”

Leonard seemed to perk up at her question and he took a seat next to her desk. “So basically, from the brief glance of the files Lisa brought home--” he then proceeded to launch into a complex explanation of mathematical equations that flew so far over Sara’s head she lost sight of it almost immediately. Sensing her confusion he stopped short, smiling ruefully. He looked away abashed. “I’ve completely lost you haven’t I?”

“A little bit.” Sara laughed. “But to be fair, math has never been my strong suit.” 

He chuckled. “I’m sorry, sometimes I get lost in the numbers.” he explained. “Let me try it this way. Think of a lawn sprinkler. Using an equation we can predict exactly where the drops of water will land. But let’s say, as in this case you're working, you don’t know where the drops came from; you can’t see the sprinkler head. Using where they landed we can accurately determine where they came from.” 

She nodded. “Sounds legit.” she joked and they shared a laugh. 

“Yes, very legit.”

“Lenny?” Lisa’s voice interrupted. Leonard turned to see her walking toward them and he stood, concern clearly etched on his face. 

“Hey, is everything okay?” he asked. 

“Yeah, he’s willing to give it a try. He wants you to brief the team.” she explained. 

“Oh, yeah alright.” he agreed following Lisa into the conference room. 

A bit of advice Professor.” Sara said to him drawing his attention from his computer where he was setting up. “Stick to the sprinkler analogy.” 

“Yes ma’am.” he smiled shyly.

xXx

When the equation was complete the area was too large. They didn’t have enough data and since data in this case involved the brutal murders of innocent young women, they weren’t willing to wait around to collect more data. That’s where Barry Allen came in. 

Barry was the youngest Forensic Tech to ever work for the FBI, a genius in his own right, he was the head of the FBI forensics unit. Using the evidence he found, knowing that those pieces of evidence could only be found in certain areas of the city they were able to narrow down the search area. 

They found him, his next victim waiting in the wings, and he wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. 

xXx

Leonard stopped what he was doing taking a deep breath, the gravity of the situation settling on his shoulders. “You did really well out there big brother.” Lisa’s voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked up to find said woman standing across the table from him. 

“Someone died because of my equations.” 

“A bad man died because he was hurting people and he would have hurt more people if you hadn’t helped up stop him. We found him with his next victim, Lenny, he would have killed her if we hadn’t listened to you.” 

Leonard nodded in understanding, going back to packing up his stuff. Silence fell between them and Lisa took a step forward. “You know, Agent Diggle is talking about bringing you on future cases now. I think you converted him.” 

Leonard smiled ruefully knowing full well what his little sister was trying to do. “I only presented him with the facts. Numbers don’t lie.” 

“Yes, well, your truth telling numbers have convinced my no nonsense, by the book boss to buy the first round of drinks. You in?” 

Leonard chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose I could have one drink.” 

“Ugh,” Lisa glared at him in mock annoyance. “You’re such a stick in the mud. You can have more than one drink, old man!” 

Leonard rolled his eyes as he finished packing up his leather saddle bag. He looped it over his shoulder and threw an around around his sister, leading her out of the conference room.

“I’ll think about it.”     


	2. Part II

Earth 5 Part II

Genius Snart x FBI Lance

xXx

“No, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t make any sense? It make perfect sense.”

“No it doesn’t the variables are all over the map, this would never work.”

“They are not, stop being dramatic Cisco! Just because you don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s it’s wrong.”

“I’m not being dramatic Wally!”

The voices had grown steadily louder as they approached Professor Leonard Snart’s office. Said man looked up from the case file Sara and Lisa had been explained to him, and swiveled his head to look through the open door just as Cisco and Wally stepped through the threshold, neither paying attention to their surroundings as they argued back and forth.

“Guys.” Leonard called out as their voices grew louder still.

“The equation is perfectly sound!” Wally snapped.

“No, it really isn’t. You’re going to blow yourself up if you try to build an engine based on this.” Cisco threw back.

“Guys.” Leonard tied again, throwing an apologetic look at Sara and his sister. Lisa chuckled turning a smile back on Sara before stepping toward the arguing pair.

“Hi Cisco.” Lisa greeted the shorter man. Immediately his head snapped around, looking toward the young agent, eyes wide.

“Hi Lisa.” Cisco replied snapping the file closed and, in Sara’s opinion, looking rather awkward. She tried not to laugh when she caught Leonard rolling his eyes. “What are you doing here? Visiting Len?”

“Sort of,” she replied. “We’re actually here on official business.” Lisa explained gesturing to Sara, standing on the opposite side of the desk.

“Official business?” Wally questioned confused looking between everyone present. Leonard sighed.

“Agent Lance, this is Professor Ramon and Professor West.” Leonard introduced them.

“Uh, please,” Cisco said as he stepped forward to shake her hand. “Call me Cisco.”

She nodded her understanding before turning to shake Wallys hand. “Wally.” the young professor said.

“It’s nice to meet you both.” she replied.

“Did you need something, or did you just come here to scream at each because of the horrible acoustics?” Leonard asked.

“Huh? Oh, no, um, Wally’s got  blueprints for a new Hybrid engine he’s working on and he asked me to look over his math, but now we can’t agree on whether or not the numbers are right.” Cisco explained.

“And you want me to look them over?” Cisco and Wally nodded. Leonard extended his hand asking for the file. Cisco handed it to him and he set it aside to look over later.

“I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.” Leonard told them before turning back to the case file. Sara watched amused as Wally and Cisco remained where they were, Cisco smiling awkwardly at lisa, much to Leonard’s annoyance. “Is there something else?” Leonard asked and Sara resisted the urge to laugh.

“Um… uh…” Cisco stuttered. Sara decided to put him out of his misery.

“Your both engineers right?” she asked drawing their attention.

“Both mechanical engineers.” Wally nodded.

“Then maybe you could help.” She said gesturing to the case file Leonard was looking over.

“Sure, if we can.” Cisco snapped out of his awkward stupor, walking up to Leonard’s desk. Leonard pushed the file across so they could see it.

“Street racing?” Cisco questioned before turning back to look at Wally. Wally stepped up as well.

“Do you have some experience with street racing Professor?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah, back when I was an undergrad. It was mostly sanctioned races outside of town but there were a few street races too.”  Wally hesitated as he caught sight of a photo in the file. The body of an older man laid out on the sidewalk beside a wrecked custom car. “But never around people.” he added. “It’s one thing to put your own life in danger…”

Sara nodded her understanding. “We’re trying to figure out what exactly happened.” she explained. “So far we know that this car came around a corner and lost control crashing into the cafe and injuring several pedestrians. The victim of the accident was trying to push a baby stroller out of the way.” there a solemn moment of silence before;

“The CCPD Accident Trajectory Model should tell you what happened.” Cisco spoke up. He turned to Wally. “You helped update that last year didn’t you?” Wally nodded.

“That’s the problem Agent Lance was just explaining to me.” Leonard added. “The model isn’t working.”

“That’s...not possible.” Wally said.

“The model isn’t working with the scenario we have from the crash sight as well as what we know so far. We were hoping Len could figure out the variables we’re missing.” Lisa added.

“You might need a little more than that.” Cisco told them. “If the variables are off then we might need more data.”

“Ramon’s right.” Leonard replied. “We can’t solve anything without more data, all we can do is experiment, hypothesize what it would take to make the scenario work.”

“Could you do that?” Sara asked him. Leonard nodded.

“It shouldn’t be a problem for me.” he looked questioningly at Cisco and Wally.

“Yeah, no problem I have a new upgraded version of the Accident model I’ve been working on, if we run it on the supercomputer we should be able to get results in about an hour.” Wally explained.

“Good, we’ll leave you to it then.” Sara told them, she smiled and bid farewell to Leonard before heading out, Lisa just behind her. Leonard scowled as he watched Lisa smile at Cisco as she walked out.

xXx

“Wow, this place is so cool.” Cisco said his eyes darting around the major crimes bullpen as he and Wally followed Leonard out of the elevator and toward the conference room where he could see the team gathered. Their attentions turned to the scientists as they entered.

“Did you find anything?” Diggle asked as he caught sight of Leonard. Leonard nodded, before turning and introducing Cisco and Wally to Agents John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Dr. Caitlin Snow.

“According to the model, the only way to account for the damage done to the storefront is an extra two hundred and sixty pounds inside the car.” Leonard explained.

“There’s no way the kid who came out of that car is 260 pounds.” Sara said looking to Dr. Snow for confirmation. She nodded.

“It could be another person, a very big person.” Caitlin explained.

“So, what if this kid was a passenger and not the driver?” Lisa suggested.

“It would certainly explain why a fifteen year old kid with no priors could somehow get his hands on a custom car.” Diggle added.

Wally inhaled audibly. “Ohhhh, it was a hazing.” he said and everyone looked to him confused. “New guys, usually young teenagers without their own cars, who want to get in on the street racing scene have to ride in the trunk. It’s a hazing ritual. If you can survive riding in the trunk you get moved up to the passenger seat the next time.”

“Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse.” Felicity muttered under her breath. Not a second later an alarm on her lap top dinged. “Looks like my algorithm finished pulling all the footage off line. There’s a lot of it.”

“Better start going through it then.” Diggle told her and she nodded, standing with her computer.

“You know I have a program that could help you narrow down the amount of footage you have to comb through.” Cisco suggested.

“Really?” Felicity asked. “Well then, by all means, I’d appreciate the help Professor.” she gestured that he follow her out.

“Call me Cisco.” they heard him correct her as they disappeared into the tech office.

“Alright, let’s get searching for that driver. Lisa, go back to the hospital, see if this kids father has any names or acquaintances or new friends his son is spending time with. Sara, go back to the crime scene and talk to witnesses again. Actually, if you don’t mind Professors, you might find something useful if you go with her.”

xXx

“Thank you for your help.” Sara spoke kindly to one of the witnesses before turning and heading toward Leonard  where he was looking over the street with a practiced eye.

“Any luck?” Leonard asked. Sara sighed, shaking her head.

“Nothing new, no. Looks like everyone was so distracted with getting out of the way they didn’t see anything that wasn’t directly in front of them. How about you guys?”

“Well, I don’t know yet. Wally thinks he’s found something but he’s not telling me.” Leonard pointed across the street where Wally was carefully examining skid marks.

“Come on.” Sara prompted, looking both ways before crossing the street. Leonard followed close behind and they came to a stop beside Wally. “Len says you think you’ve found something?” she asked as Wally stood to full height when they stopped beside him.

“Yeah. nothing I can confirm until I run it through the simulator but, I think there may have been a second car.”

“Of course.” Leonard breathed and Sara looked between them.

“What does that mean if there was a second car?”

“It means that the extra 260 pounds could be accounted for with a collision and would explain why a car with a slip diferential lost control in a fairly basic maneuver.”

“Are you saying our car was hit with a pit maneuver?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Wally replied. “But until I get back to the lab and run calculations I can’t say for certain.”

“Then let’s get you back to the lab.”

xXx

“Hey, Agent Lance said you think you found something.” Cisco said by way of greeting as he entered the lab. He found Wally hunched over his computer while Leonard scribbled equations on his clear dry erase board.

“Yeah, there may have been a second car. We’re testing it now. Will you plug the differentials in?” Wally replied pointing to the second computer set up on his other side.

Cisco agreed easily getting to work. The only sound between them as they worked; the clicking of keys and the impact of marker on plexiglass.

“So, how did it go with agent Smoak?” Leonard eventually broke the silence.

“She’s amazing.” Cisco replied. “She’d make an amazing addition to Calsci. How did she end up at the FBI?”

Leonard smirked. “She got caught.” he told him. Cisco and Wally both looked up confused.

“You remember the White hat hacker Overwatch don’t you?”

Cisco’s eyes widened. “Are you telling me I just spent two hours with THE Overwatch?” his voice high pitched and a little shreeky.

“She prefers Felicity actually.” Lisa’s replied drawing their attention as she entered, Sara close behind.

“Perfect timing.” Leonard told them. “We’re just about ready to run the simulation.”

Within minutes they were watching the 3D animation on the large flat screen, confirming what Wally had suspected. As if on cue Sara’s phone rang and she excused herself to answer it, coming back not long after to tell them that Felicity had found footage of the wreck and driver of the car.

xXx

“Looks like he skipped town.” Sara explained as she hung up her desk phone. Leonard stood above her leaning against the cubicle partition. “We’ll find him though. His picture is out with every patrol officer on the west coast.”

“Good.” Leonard replied. “And in the meantime?” he continued.

“We move on.” she replied laying a hand on a large stack of files. “There are new cases coming in daily.”

“Well, you know where to find me if you need any help… not that you would need my help to do your job… or…” Leonard’s rambling was cut off as Sara laughed.

“I get what you're saying Professor.” she stood, stopping in front of him. “You weren’t too far off honestly. We have needed you a few times to do our jobs.”

“Yes well, my math is nothing without your expertise.” he replied with a light smile.

“You know,” Sara smirked. “In a different light that could have been very romantic.” she told him grinning as she watched him look away blushing.

“I’ll have to keep that in mind.” he told her.

xXx

“Is there something going on between Agent Lance and your brother?” Cisco asked Lisa as he helped her and Felicity pack up the conference room. Lisa looked up confused before turning her gaze out through the glass walls toward the bull pen. She deflated considerably.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” Lisa grouched turning back to her task. “Lenny has shown absolutely no interest in people romantically in years and then he meets the one person who could royally screw me over if it doesn’t end well.”

Felicity chuckled. “You have to admit, they’re kind of cute.” she said. Lisa rolled her eyes.

“Don’t encourage them. I don’t need my big brother dating my S.O.” she sighed “No matter how right you are.” she looked over her shoulder as she spoke and shook her head. She watched as Leonard smiled, looking away to hide a blush from Sara.

“I’m screwed.” she continued turning back around. “He hasn’t looked that happy since Mick died.”

“Mick?” Felicity asked confused. Lisa shook her head.

“It’s a long story.” Lisa took a deep breath. “Guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”


	3. Part III

Earth 5 Part III

Genius Snart/FBI Lance

xXx

Martin Stein was a blessed man in his own opinion. A loving, supportive wife, a brilliant daughter, a genius stepson and big hearted stepdaughter. What more could one man ask for?

Grandchildren. That’s what more one man could ask for. 

Lily had given him his first, a grandson he adored more than anything. He was doated on by his aunt and uncle and grandparents, spoiled rotten. But his other children, and yes they were his children no matter what Lewis Snart said to get under his skin, didn’t appear to be an closer to contributing in the grandchild department. Lisa with her brilliant mind for the law and unerring sense of justice had left the practice of law before she had even begun, spurred on by Lewis’ escape from prison shortly before she was set to take the bar exam. Instead she found herself at the FBI, despite the family’s concerns, where, by all accounts she was doing quite well for herself. Unfortunately, long hours at the office and in the field left little time for meaningful relationships outside of the family. 

And then there was Leonard, the most brilliant mathematician he had ever met. At sixteen, the young man had solved problems most in the field were still struggling to grasp. It was obvious, very early on that he was meant to do great things. Martin had met Leonard while he was sneaking around the Cal-Sci campus, secretly sitting in on classes. When Martin realized what he was doing and why, he hadn’t hesitated to take him under his wing. Leonard didn’t want to talk about home, or the fresh bruises or burn scars. All he wanted to do was study math. He couldn’t go to school, everyone just assumed he was like his father and gave up on him before he could prove them wrong. He didn’t want anything special he just wanted to be able to protect his sister, feed her, cloth her, all the things a parent was supposed to do, and Martin watched in awe of him as he did exactly that. 

When Lewis finally went to prison Martin wasted no time. Clarissa pulled strings with a few of her contacts in Child services and before they knew it their family had grown by two. Lisa and Lily took to each other quickly, but it took a little time for Leonard to realize he wasn’t just a guest in their home, it was his home too. Before he knew it, he was enrolling Leonard in special classes at the University, getting him a tutor to catch up on all his other subjects and helping both Leonard and Lisa learn what it meant to be a child who didn’t have to worry about whether or not they would eat that night or if they would have to fight for their lives. 

Martin and Clarissa built a warm and happy home for their children and despite everything they had been through, Leonard and Lisa grew into fine adults. He just wished Lisa wasn’t so obsessed with work and Leonard wasn’t so shy in anything that didn’t involve math. 

“Who could that be at this time of night?” Clarissa asked, pulling Martin from his thoughts. He was supposed to be grading midterms, but he’d found himself drifting off in  reminicenes as he watched Lisa fold her Laundry (Apparently the machines in her apartment complex keep eating expensive things). He turned to watch Clarissa get up and answer the door. “Hello, can I help you?” he heard her greet whoever was on the other side. 

“Hi, I’m sorry to bother you so late. My name is Sara I work with Lisa at the FBI.” he and Lisa heard the reply and Lisa stood. 

“Oh of course, please, come in.” Clarissa ushered her in. 

“Sara? Is everything alright? Do we have a case?” 

“Not exactly.” Sara replied. “Is your brother here?” 

“Leonard is in the garage working on one of his equations.” Martin spoke up. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.” 

“Oh I’m sorry.” Lisa spoke up. “Mom, dad this is SSA Lance, she’s my S.O. Sara this is my dad Professor Martin Stein and my mom Doctor Clarissa Stein.” 

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.” Sara replied. 

“Likewise.” Martin replied. “Come on back, I’ll show you the way.” 

“I can show her dad.” Lisa argued but he waved her off. 

“That’s alright, I need to get up anyway. I’ve been dozing off when I should grading papers.” he chuckled, leading Sara back through the adjacent dining room. Sara smiled but Martin could see it was a bit forced.  

Martin led her back through the kitchen and out through a side door into the garage where there were dozens of chalkboards on wheels and nailed up on the walls. Each one was full of equations and on the far side Leonard stood hunched over one, trying to make the last lines of numbers and symbols fit before he had to switch boards. 

“Leonard, you have a guest.” Martin called out, but he didn’t react. Martin sighed. “He must have his headphones in. I swear, the house could be on fire and he would never know it with those things.” 

Sara chuckled as she slipped passed him. Martin watched as she walked up to Leonard and tapped him on the shoulder. Leonard was visibly startled, whirling around to face her. His eyes were wide when he realized it was her and not Lisa or Clarissa and Martin tried not to laugh as he yanked his earbuds out. 

“Agent Lance...Sara... what are you doing here?” he stuttered out, flustered. There was a slight tint of pink on his cheeks. 

“I need your help? Is this a bad time?” Sara asked, gesturing to the chalkboards. 

“Oh this, no, I’ve been working on this for years, it can wait a little while more.” 

_ “Funny, he was determined to finish it when he got home from work this evening. He even skipped dinner.”  _ Martin thought to himself, the wheels began turning in his head as he smiled and left them alone.

“So what can I do for you?” he asked. 

Sara handed him the file she had been carrying with her. “An acquaintance of mine was arrested tonight. The LAPD say she killed someone. I just… she asked for my help and I just want to make sure they aren’t railroading her because its a neat, convenient solution.”

Leonard nodded, opening the file. “Lance?” he scowled at the name. “Dinah Laurel Lance? Sara, this is your sister? What happened?” 

“Police say they found her lying unconscious in a pool of blood, they believed her to be intoxicated. She was in the apartment of a man she claims she was on a date with and she doesn’t remember much else. They found her date on the bed and… well, it wasn’t pretty.”  

“Do you think she did this? Is she capable of it?” 

“Depends on what the tox report says when it comes back. Look, can you just look at what the police have found and tell me if there’s anyway she didn’t do this?” Leonard simply nodded. “Thank you, I owe you one.” 

xXx

Leonard found Sara at her desk the next morning. 

“Hey,” he greeted her, drawing her attention. He rolled over a chair from the empty desk behind her. “So I did what you asked.” he continued. 

“And?” 

“And, it looks like she did it.” he told her delicately. “But…”

“But what?” she asked when he failed to find the words. 

“You know how I’m always saying you can never have too much data?” Sara nodded. “Well, I lied, you can. And this is the perfect example.” he told her. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, that when it comes to evidence there’s a certain margin of error, as I’m sure you’re aware. Well here, there is no margin. Everything fits exactly where it needs to fit to make a picture, just like a jigsaw puzzle. Even if the crime lab finds no forensics there’s enough circumstantial evidence to sway public opinion against her and convince a grand jury to indict.”

“So your saying she’s being framed?” Sara questioned. 

“It certainly looks that way.” he replied. 

Sara sighed, the tension leaving her shoulders as she sat back in her chair. “Alright, just gotta figure out how to prove it.” 

“I don’t mean to pry, but, can I ask what’s going on?” 

“You read the file.” she replied confused. 

“No, I mean with…” 

Sara hesitated. “I can’t.” she finally said. “Thank you for your help Leonard. I really appreciate it.” she continued, standing. 

“Of course, any time, but what are you going to do now?” he asked, standing as well. 

“I’m going to try to convince John to let me tag along with the LAPD to see what else pops up.” 

“And if that doesn’t work?” 

“I have a lot of time saved up. Everyone’s always getting on me about taking time off. No time like the present.” she explained. 

“Something tells me this isn’t what they had in mind.” 

She smiled at him, but it was half hearted at best and walked away. He watched after her until she entered John’s office. 

“Hey Lenny, is everything okay?” Lisa asked as she walked up. 

“I don’t know.” 

xXx

“I’m not trying to step on your toes.” Sara defended as she followed Detective Joe West through his bullpen. “You can’t tell me you wouldn’t want to be on the inside if this were  _ your  _ sister.” 

Joe sighed turning to face her. “Is that why you sent your analyst ahead? So it would seem less invasive. Figured out I can’t say no to this kid?” 

Sara looked up at him a little wide eyed. “I’m sorry what? What analyst?” 

Joe scowled. “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?” 

“I really don’t, detective.” 

He sighed, gesturing for her to follow him. He led her through the bullpen, stopping at a closed door and pushing it open to reveal a conference room. A conference room currently occupied by one Professor Leonard Snart. He was alternating between writing on a white board and looking through case files.

“Leonard?” she questioned drawing his attention. “What are you doing here?” 

“Perfect timing.” he told her, capping his marker and gesturing for both of them to come in. “Something was bothering me about the case so I reread the file and I think I can prove she didn’t do this.” 

Joe and Sara shared a look. Joe sighed again. “Alright, go ahead.” 

“Okay, it’s actually pretty simple mathematically.” Sara gave him a look. “But... I’ll try to explain it the best I can. So basically what I would be doing is the same thing I did for the goldmen case. Plugging in past behaviors, taking into account a criminal record and putting value on different aspects of her life to determine if she is even capable of this.” 

“And that’ll hold up in court?” Joe asked. 

“We used it to catch a serial killer last month.” Sara explained. “But, correct me if I’m wrong didn’t you run that equation on an entire list of suspects?” 

“Yes, which is why I was hoping Detective West may have a list of people in the victim’s life. Business partners, coworkers, ex-girlfriends, disgruntled neighbors. Anyone he would have come into contact with for an extended period of time.” 

Joe looked between them. “A serial killer, huh?” Sara nodded. “Alright, I’ll get you the list, we’ll start pulling files.” 

“Thank you, detective.” Sara told him as he headed for the door. 

“Yeah well, I’m not looking for the easy answer, agent, I’m looking for the right one. And in the meantime, holding got your request to meet with Laurel, they’ll be ready for you in an hour.”

With that he walked out, leaving Sara and Leonard alone. Sara turned back to Leonard to find he’d already gotten back to work. 

“So how do you know Detective West?” Sara asked, walking over to look at his files. Leonard looked away from his equation. 

“He, uh, he arrested me a few times.” he looked away bashfully. 

“Arrested you? Professor Snart, are you secretly a bad boy?” 

He sighed, blushing. “Just petty stuff. Shoplifting, trespassing. He always managed to convince the plaintiff not to press charges. I think he hoped I’d turn my life around eventually. I never did figure out why he always stuck up for me. Now I just assume he could see something was wrong but he couldn’t do anything about it at the time.” 

Sara didn’t reply. Leonard was getting visibly uncomfortable talking about this and she wasn’t going to insist he continue. “So you really think she didn’t do this?” Leonard looked relieved at the change of subject, then;

“Do you? Why are you so sure the tox report will change your mind?” 

Sara sighed. “Laurel is an addict. Prescription drugs, alcohol. She’s been sober for years and there’s always been a part of me that thought she’d never back slide, but the more I think about it the more I realize I have no idea who she is anymore. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in years.”

“Can I ask why?”

Sara shrugged. “I don’t know. We used to be so close. Then we weren’t anymore. She took the death of our friend really hard, we didn’t grieve the same… just a bunch of things all piled on top of each other until we could barely stand to be in the same room.” 

“She called you now though, didn’t she?” he asked. And he was right. She had dropped her name when they first brought her in. Sara, however had not spoken to her since then, only the police and their father back home, she had no way of knowing whether Laurel had invoked her name out of desperation or a legitimate hope that she could actually help. “Nothing like a murder to bring family back together.” Leonard continued interrupting her thoughts. Sara snorted. 

“No, I guess not.”

xXx

Laurel was almost exactly as Sara remembered. Her eyes were a little more weary and her hair seemed a lighter blonde, but there she was, her best friend in the whole world, sitting on the other side of a steel table, hands cuffed to the ring at the center. It kind of broke her heart to see how surprised Laurel looked to see her walk through the door. 

“Hey.” she said. 

“Hey.” Laurel replied. There was an awkward sort of pause as they struggled to find anything else to say and Sara took the opportunity to sit across from her. “You came.” Laurel eventually said. 

“Of course, your my sister.” Sara said. “I’ve got one of my best guys working on this. He thinks he can prove your innocent.” 

There was a spark of hopefulness that Laurel tamped down before it could bloom. “Really?” she asked. 

Sara nodded. “He’s confident that the evidence against you is too perfect. Like it was planted to frame you, which is why I have to ask you if you can think of anyone who would want to hurt you like this?” 

“No.” Laurel shook her head. “I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m not a saint, but I don’t think I’ve ever driven anyone to murder?” 

“What about someone from your time as a DA? Any one you convicted who could still be holding a grudge?” 

“A few gang bangers, some drug dealers. I prosecuted a few killers too, but they were all convicted for killing people in their lives, no psychopaths in the making. At least I don’t think so.” 

“What about…” Sara paused. “What about families of victims. A few of your convictions were overturned when your substance abuse came to light.” 

Laurel seemed to deflate. “I’m sure there are plenty of those.” 

There was silence between them again, this time mournful. 

“Have you talked to mom or dad?” Laurel’s voice was so small, almost like a child. It was hard for Sara to equate the woman before her with the bold, brave girl who had been her hero growing up. The woman who faced down life’s challenges, lived life fully and openly and loved with everything she had. 

“I talked to dad. He promised to get a hold of mom. Uncle Malcolm was with Dad when I called, he’s ready to send his lawyer to represent you as soon as you give him the word.” 

Laurel huffed a humorless laugh. “Only guilty people need lawyers right? Isn’t that what we used to tell people when we wanted to scare them into talking?” 

“Yeah, but you know as well as I do that it’s just a bullshit lie. So if you want him here all you have to do is say the word and I’ll call Malcolm back.” 

“I’ll think about it.”

“Okay, in the meantime, I’m going to need you to make a list.”

“Of what?” 

“Of all the people who would be angry at you. People you prosecuted, the families of victims and the convicted, anyone you met after you left Star City. Whoever you can think of, even if it doesn’t seem likely. Also the motive they might have for doing it. We have a way of weeding out the suspects.” 

“How’s that?” she asked, taking the pen and pad of paper Sara handed her. 

“The guy I told you I had working on this, he’s a mathematician. He’s helped us close a bunch of high profile cases in the last year and a half. His equations even took down a drug ring in the inner city.”

“And he did all that with math?” Laurel questioned. 

Sara nodded. “Numbers don’t lie.” 

xXx

“Excuse me?” a male voice pulled Leonard from his thoughts as he sat staring at the whiteboard in the conference room. He turned to find a broad shouldered older man standing in the doorway. He wore a custom tailored suit which was immaculate. “I’m looking for Sara Lance.” he continued. 

“She went down to holding to meet with her sister.” he replied. “She should be back soon though. They put a time limit on her meeting.” he continued. 

“I assume your working with her.” the man continued stepping into the room. 

Leonard nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry, who are you?” he asked. 

“My apologies, I’m Malcolm, Malcolm Merlyn. I’m Sara’s godfather. I accompanied my attorney down here to represent Laurel.” 

“I see, well, like I said she should be back soon.” 

“Good. Do you don’t mind me waiting here?” he asked, gesturing to the empty seating around the conference table. Leonard simply shook his head and got back to work. “You know I don’t think I caught your name.” Malcolm spoke up a little while later. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Leonard replied turning to face the older man. “I’m Leonard Snart. I’m a math professor at Cal-Sci.” 

“A math professor? They have math professors solving crimes now?” Malcolm questioned. 

“I’m pretty sure I’m the only one at this point.” 

“And how exactly is math going to help Laurel?” 

“Well, at the moment, I’m using it to place values on motives. I’m running a list of suspects through an equation I wrote, whittling down the likelihood that each person committed the crime based on various factors including motive and criminal history.” 

“And that works? Breaking people’s actions down to numbers and equations?” he asked. 

“Well, it’s only the first step. It’s just a way of making a long list more manageable so law enforcement doesn’t waste resources looking into people who have nothing to do with the investigation and no insights to share.” 

“Okay Leonard, I’ve got more…” Sara’s voice cut off as she stepped through the door and caught sight of the new occupant. “Uncle Malcolm, what are you doing here?” she looked surprised but smiled nonetheless, dropping the pad of paper she had been carrying on the table and walking around to meet him. He stood to pull her into a hug. 

“Well it occured to me that if Laurel decides to accept representation it would be best if the attorney was already in the city so she wouldn’t have to wait. I just flew down with him to keep an eye on everything for your parents.” Malcolm explained. He gestured to Leonard. “Your mathematician was just explaining his methods.” 

Leonard had reached for the pad she set aside, sliding it toward him while they talked and looking it over. With their attention on him he looked up. “Those are the names Laurel gave me, I have Lisa pulling files on them.” 

“Great, I’ll start plugging them in.” he told her and turned back to his work. Sara looked between the two men suspicious, but said nothing. 

xXx

Joe stepped into the conference room to find Sara at the far end of the table making notes and Leonard at the whiteboard staring at his own handwriting. He’d passed Malcolm Merlyn on the way in, Laurel having decided she was ready for a lawyer after all. 

“Hey, one of your agents sent something over I think you should see.” he said by way of greeting. He slid a stack of files to her. 

“This can’t be right.” Sara said after flipping through the files. 

“What is it?” Leonard asked. 

“Four of the people on Laurel’s list are dead.” Joe explained. “All of them look like suicides.” 

Leonard moved up behind Sara to read over her shoulder. “Wait, I just read a file with all of these names in it.” he went digging through the pile of folders until he found what he was looking for. “The people vs Jordan Clems.” 

“That sounds familiar.” Sara replied accepting the file when he handed it to her. “Oh yeah, Laurel was upset about this one. Thought the kid got a raw deal because of his defense attorney.” 

“What happened?” 

“This kid was coerced into a robbing a liquor store in Star City and one of his partners killed the clerk. The arresting officers and Laurel could all tell he hadn’t been as complicit as the others but he had been convicted on a few B and E’s through childhood and into adulthood so by California law she  _ had  _ to try him as an accomplice. Unless, of course, he accepted a plea deal. She offered him one but his defense attorney convinced him that he could get him off, that they could win the case despite all the evidence. Under the three strikes law he was sentenced to life in prison, he killed himself within the first month.”

“He killed himself and four of the five people tied to the case, the two arresting officers, the defense attorney, and the judge are dead, their deaths looking like suicides?” Joe stated. “What are the chances?” 

“One point four million to one.” Leonard replied. 

Sara shook her head. “But why change the motive with Laurel? And for that matter why would the family still blame her after everything she tried to do for him.”

“What do you mean?” Joe asked. 

“Laurel went behind her bosses back and talked to his family. She told them she thought his defense attorney was too interested in making a name for himself than actually defending Jordan. She tried to convince them to talk him into accepting the deal. When her boss found out she was suspended for two weeks. She almost lost her job.” 

“Maybe they think that because they couldn’t convince him to take the deal, she should have thrown the case.” Joe suggested. 

“Or maybe they didn’t agree with her. Thought she was railroading him.” Leonard added. 

“What do we know about the victim? Laurel said she had met him a few times before. They went to the same coffee shop. He asked her out for the first time a few days ago.” 

Joe flipped open the file. “Michael Connors, thirty-six, software developer for Wayne Enterprises LA division. No family listed, no emergency contact on his rental agreement.” 

Before anyone could answer a knock sounded at the door and they looked up to find a uniformed officer there. “Forensics report sir.” 

“Thanks.” 

They waited for Joe to read it and in the meantime, Leonard went back to his equations while Sara pulled over the laptop she borrowed from Joe. “The blood she was lying in was a type match to Connors.” 

“No surprise there.” Sara muttered.

“No, but this is a surprise. No spatter or blood trail.” he continued. “It’s like someone dumped a bucket of blood on the floor, laid her in it and then killed Connors. Or vice versa. According the the Coroner, there’s more blood in the room then there is in a body Conners size.” 

“So someone would have had to draw and store it?” Leonard questioned with a grimace. “How do you manage that, unless Connors was in on it and didn’t know he was actually going to die.” 

“That makes sense. So we’d be looking for a partner.” Joe replied. 

“Or,” Sara spoke up. “He did all of this by himself.” 

Sara flipped the computer around so they could see the screen. A photo of Jordan Clems being led out of the courtroom was there. Behind him a row of family members and right in the middle, a young man who looked shockingly like a much younger Michael Connors. “His real name is Michael Clems. He’s Jordan’s younger brother.” 

xXx

“I always knew that case would come back to haunt me one day.” Laurel said as she walked with Sara along the front of the precinct. At the end of the road sat a black town car, Malcolm leaning against the side. 

“So where are you heading to now?” Sara asked. 

“Home.” Laurel replied. “I’m going back to Star City. I think it’s about time I started living instead of moving from one day to the next.” 

“Good, everyone’s missed you.” 

Laurel smiled. “From what I hear, everyone misses you too. You should come with me.” 

Sara shook her head. “I can’t, I have my job and a life here. But, I do have some vacation days saved up, maybe I could plan a little trip up there.” 

Laurel smiled and pulled Sara into a hug. “Thank you baby sister. For always being there for me.” 

“That’s what sisters are for, Laur.” 

The two girls finished the walk to the car, meeting Malcolm there. 

“You know when you come up to visit you should bring your Mathematician.” Laurel told her. 

Sara looked confused. “Who, Leonard? Why would I bring him?” 

“Aren’t you two dating?” Malcolm questioned confused. 

Sara shook her head. “No, we just work together from time to time. His sister is the team newbie.” 

Malcolm and Laurel shared a look. “He’s quite the friend then. Putting everything else aside to help you.” 

“He’s just a good person.” 

Laurel rolled her eyes. “Your hopeless baby sister.” 

xXx

Sara found Leonard coming out of the precinct, fiddling with his phone. 

“Hey.” she greeted, drawing his attention. 

“Hey, how’s your sister?” 

“Good, she’s going back to Star City with Malcolm. Going to take some time to figure things out.” 

“That’s good. I’m glad everything worked out.” he replied. 

“Yeah. Listen…” she hesitated. “I don’t think I can thank you enough for what you did for Laurel. I really owe you one, Leonard.” 

Leonard shrugged and looked away, suddenly feeling self conscious. 

“Yes, well, just doing the right thing. You’d do the same for me I’m sure.” he shifted a little awkwardly. 

Before she could reply, a blue hybrid car pulled up to the curb, the passenger window rolling down. “Ready to go?” Martin Stein called out. “Oh, Agent Lance, wonderful to see you again.” 

Leonard looked like he was in physical pain and Sara bit back a smile. 

“Likewise Professor.” 

“Please, call me Martin.” he told her. 

Leonard took a deep steadying breath. “Alright, well, we should be going.” he interrupted ignoring the twinkle of mischief in his father’s eye. 

“Thanks again, Leonard.” she said as he climbed in the passenger seat. 

“Anytime.” 

With that, Martin pulled onto the road. Silence sat between them, a sort of tension that Leonard knew could snap at any moment. 

“She seems nice.” Martin eventually spoke up. 

“Dad.” he warned. 

“What, it was just an observation.” Martin paused. “Is she married?” 

“Dad!”        



	4. Part IV

Earth 5 Part IV

Genius Snart/FBI Lance

xXx

“What happened? You look like someone just told you math is being outlawed.” Felicity Smoak said by way of greeting as she proceeded Sara into Leonard’s office. Leonard was sitting behind his desk, feet up on the edge, arms crossed and scowl on his face, glaring at the back of Cisco’s head. He glanced over at them, his expression never changing before going back to staring at Cisco. Cisco on the other hand was sitting cross legged on an armless rolling chair in front of Leonard's white boards. 

“What is he doing?” Sara asked, moving around to Leonard’s desk where she leaned against the short file cabinet behind it. 

“He came in while I was analyzing the code you sent me and commandeered my work space. “He refuses to move.” 

“He’s on a rolling chair, just...roll him out of the way.” Sara said trying not to laugh. 

Leonard sighed. “I tried that.” he told her. “He rolled himself back in and right over my foot. Scuffed my new shoes.” he continued, gesturing to the black scuff mark on the tip of his blue loafers. 

“How awful.” she muttered without an ounce of sympathy. 

Leonard tipped his head back against the back of the chair to look up at her unimpressed. “Yes, it is.”

“Did he say anything before he went all…” Felicity gestured to Cisco. 

“Only that he recognized the code.” Leonard replied. 

“I assume he’s been staring at it trying to figure out where he’s seen it?” Sara asked. 

“That seems to be the only logical explanation at the moment.” he said. Leonard sighed and dropped his feet back to the floor. “So, I thought you were off for the week.” he directed at Felicity. 

“That’s why we’re here.” Sara replied. 

“I heard about the case and decided to come back early.” she explained, making her way over. “Sara just picked me up from the airport.” 

“I thought you were visiting your mother for her birthday?” 

“Her birthday was yesterday and I exhausted my tolerance for her two days ago.” She explained, approaching the desk. “Do you have a print of the code?” she asked, pulling her laptop out of the bag she had been carrying. Leonard dug through a pile of files on the desk and pulled one out, passing it to her. 

When she had it, Leonard turned back to Sara. “These are Armani you know. I’m going to have to have them clean professionally.” 

Sara rolled her eyes. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Len. When are the calling hours? I’ll send flowers.” she told him. He huffed. “And how exactly do you afford designer shoes on a teachers salary?” 

“I don’t. I have multiple book deals and regularly consult on various projects for corporate entities.” 

She squinted at him. 

“Are you showing off for Agent Lance?” Cisco spoke up from across the room. 

“Oh, look who's finally decided to rejoin reality.” Leonard scoffed, trying to ignore the heat rising up his neck or the fact that he could see Sara smirking out of the corner of his eye. 

“Are you sure this is right?” Felicity cut Cisco off before he could reply. They all turned to her. She was staring down at the file looking equal parts confused and nauseous. 

“I’m sure. There was only one file.” Leonard explained. 

“Then there has to be a mistake. This isn’t possible.” she continued, snapping the folder closed suddenly angry. 

“Why isn’t it possible?” Sara questioned. Felicity didn’t respond as her eyes flitted around the room. Sara had seen this behavior before, mostly on people with paranoia or anxiety issues. She was devolving quickly toward panic, feeling boxed in despite how large Leonard’s office was. Sara quickly stood straight and made her way toward her. 

“It’s not possible. It’s just not possible.” Felicity continued stopping short when she realized Sara was standing in her path. She looked up at the older woman, tears shining in her eyes. Taken back, Sara froze, watching as a hand came up to stifle a sob. Sara snapped out of it, pulling the younger woman into her arms. “It’s not possible.” she whispered.

xXx

“Cooper Seldon, 23. Killed in prison by a gang member during yard time. He was arrested by the FBI’s cyber crimes unit. He was accused of hacking the MIT campus admissions servers and deleting student loans.” Lisa explained, the overhead projector scrolling through various photos and documents in the conference room. A photo popped up of Seldon’s arrest, the young man being dragged away in handcuffs while another agent held Felicity back in the background. 

“I guess even Felicity had a goth phase.” Diggle muttered. 

Absently, various eyes traveled across the bullpen where said woman was sitting in one of the interrogation rooms, an agent from internal affairs on the opposite side. 

“We now know that the code and program used to hack the school’s servers were written by Felicity, who was dating Cooper at the time.” Lisa continued. 

“She claims that she didn’t know Seldon was going to do that, only that he said a friend of theirs was in danger of losing his scholarships and he was hoping to buy him time to bring up his GPA. When he started deleting loan information she pulled the plug to keep them from being tracked.” Sara added. 

“Alright, so how did code Felicity wrote in College and  _ deleted  _ after Seldon was arrested get into the hands of our current unsub who's been hacking bank vaults all over the world?” Diggle questioned. 

“There was a third person there that day. A Myron Forest. Maybe he kept a copy of her program.” Lisa suggested. 

“That’s a possibility. Do we have an address on this guy?” 

“Last known he was renting space in an empty warehouse downtown.” 

“Alright, Sara, take Lisa, see if you can’t dig this guy up.” Diggle ordered. Leonard spoke up as they got up to leave. 

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to tag along. Seeing the scene first hand could help with this pursuit curve you’ve asked for.” 

Diggle nodded. “Fine by me, but it’s up to Sara.” 

Leonard turned to look at her. 

“Fine,” she sighed. “But you do what I say and your wearing a vest.” 

xXx

Cisco skidded to a halt in the conference room, having taken a running start from the elevators. A woman in a black suit trailed after him at a much more sedate pace. “I remembered where I’ve seen the code.” he exclaimed looking a little smug. As he looked around the room his face fell. “Where’s Snart?” 

“He went to talk to a person of interest with Sara and Lisa.” Diggle explained, ignoring Cisco’s scowl and muttered curse. “Lyla, what are you doing here?” he greeted his wife as she stopped just inside the doorway and closed the doors behind her. 

“You know each other?” Cisco asked. 

“Their married.” Felicity replied from her seat at one of the tables. She was working at her laptop, being heavily scrutinized by the agent from internal affairs who made it clear he would be sticking around through the case if they wanted her working on it. 

Cisco looked between them. 

“I’m here because of your case, John.” she replied. 

“The NSA wouldn’t let me tell you what I know without a high ranking agent present.” Cisco explained. 

“Alright then, what do you know?”

“A few years ago, right after I got my security clearance, the NSA asked me to help them track down a ghost hacker. My thesis had been on the best methods of tracking anonymous users who abuse the anonymity of the web and they thought my algorithms could help. I got close, pulling a small section of code out of the firewall the hacker threw up at the last minute to distract me.” Cisco explained. “It was the code you found.” 

“Does that make sense?” Diggle asked Felicity.

“Yes.” she nodded. “The point of hacking the administration, according to Cooper, was to help one of our friends who was in academic distress. He had missed several important classes because he’d been sick a lot and his GPA was falling because of it. Cooper claimed he wanted to gum up the works, slow down the admin department just enough to help our friend finish his make up work and bring his grades up.” she paused. “Well you don’t hack anything at MIT and not expect to get back hacked so I built that wall to distract whoever tried to trace us so we could shut down before we were discovered. I gave Cooper control of the program and apparently he didn’t get the wall up in time, because a few days later the FBI showed up and arrested him.”  she sighed. “I told Cooper I was going to tell the FBI that it was my program, but he said they’d already offered him a deal so he confessed to everything.” 

“How long was he in there before you went to see him?” Lyla asked. 

“A day, maybe two.” 

“And they’d already offered him a deal?” Cisco questioned. “I’m no legal expert but that sounds suspiciously fast.”

“It is.” Lyla replied. 

“Sounds like Cooper got Overwatched.” Diggle replied. 

Felicity looked at him wide eyed. “You think someone in the letterpool flipped him, too?” 

“It would make sense. He took credit for your program when he confessed. A program he used to hack one of the most secure schools on the East Coast. Any number of agencies would want that kind of talent on their payroll.” Lyla explained. 

“The director of the FBI had to call in all sorts of favors to keep the CIA from snatching you away from us.” Diggle told her. 

“He fended off the NSA too.” Lyla added. 

Felicity looked stunned but quickly shook it off. “Alright, I can buy that, but what happens when they realize he didn’t write the program?” 

“What do you mean?” Lyla asked. 

“I mean Cooper was smart, but he went to MIT for engineering not coding. I mean he wasn’t a slouch but he wasn’t….” she hesitated. “Not to sound conceited but he wasn’t on my level.” she explained. “Anyone would have eventually seen that. He was smart enough to know he couldn’t hide that.” 

“If he hadn’t have been killed in prison, they would have figured him out and sent him back.” Cisco added, grasping her train of thought. 

Lyla and Diggle shared a weighted a look. 

As if on cue, Dr. Snow and Barry Allen knocked on the conference room door before John waved her in. “What did the new autopsy say?” he asked. 

“I can’t do a new autopsy without a body.” she explained. 

“His body was gone?” Felicity questioned looking queasy. 

“No, I don’t think it was ever in there. The lining was immaculate. No decaying matter.” Caitlin explained. 

“There weren’t any particulate traces either. Nothing to suggest that there had ever been anything in the casket.” Barry finished. 

“Are… are you suggesting he faked his death?” Felicity questioned. 

“I’m sorry, Felicity, but I can’t think of any other reason why his body was never in that grave.” 

Felicity looked stricken, dropping her head in her hands. 

“How do you fake your death in prison?” Cisco asked. 

“It’s not as difficult as you would think. People get lost in the prison system all the time. Overcrowding combined with unreliable tracking measures, a prisoner could live in the system, moving around undetected for years. With an agency like, say the CIA, who have a history of using ghost agents, it wouldn’t even be a high risk operation.” Lyla explained.

The phone on the center table rang, a voice speaking through the intercom. 

“Agent Snart calling in, sir.” 

Felicity reached over and pushed a button on the phone. “Your on speaker phone, Lisa.” 

“Did Forrest tell you anything?” Diggle questioned. 

“He’s not going to be telling anyone anything, sir.” Lisa replied. “Agent Lance took Leonard up to the loft to look around, but we found Myron Forest in the trunk of his car out front of the warehouse. It smells like he’s been dead for a few days.” 

Felicity cursed under her breath and Cisco moved to sit beside her, offering some level of comfort.

Diggle sighed. “Alright, Lisa. Caitlin and Barry are here I’m sending them your way. Have Sara Cord…”

Before Diggle to could finish an explosion blasted through the speakers.

“Lisa! Lisa!” he yelled before the line went dead. Within seconds an agent burst through the closed door. 

“Reports of an explosion in the warehouse district.” 

“Get SWAT and the bomb squad down there now. Let them know there are at least two agents and one civilian contractor in the area.” the agent rushed off. “Felicity, your coming with us. Cisco too, I want a nerd on the ground in case we need to think creatively.” he turned to Lyla. 

“I’ve got your back.” she said simply. 


	5. Part V

Earth 5 Part V

Genius Snart/FBI Lance

xXx

The warehouse wasn’t so much a warehouse as it was an industrial storage building. It was four stories tall and sat in the middle of a long row of similar buildings. There was a set of concrete stairs and a glass door at the front and a parked car just to the left of that, on the far side of a dumpster that clearly hadn’t been emptied in a while. 

“What are the chances that’s just rust?” Lisa grimaced gesturing to the dry red brown stain on the back bumper. 

“The car isn’t that old.” Sara replied. 

“You might want to stay back Lenny.” Lisa looked over her shoulder as they approached, both agents pulling rubber gloves from their pockets. Leonard stayed with Lisa as Sara walked around the side of the car, opening the front door and popping the trunk. The trunk clicked but didn’t rise and when Sara returned the two women shared a look before quickly throwing it open. Lisa stepped back the force of the smell hitting her hard, Leonard wasn’t much better behind her. 

Sara pressed her nose and mouth into the crook of her left elbow and reached into the trunk, pulling a wallet out of a jacket pocket. “Myron Forest.” she read, stepping back in the futile  attempt to breathe some fresh air. “Judging by the smell he’s been here three days or so.” she replied. She tossed the wallet back into the trunk and closed it, all three of them backtracking away from it. “Call Dig, let him know what we found. I’m going to go take a look around inside.”

“Mind if I go with you?” Leonard asked as she stripped off her glove. 

“Just stay close and don’t touch anything. It’s officially a crime scene.” she told him. She turned to Lisa. “You gonna be okay, by yourself?” 

“Yeah, we’re not that far from downtown, they shouldn’t take long to get here.” 

Sara simply nodded, before turning and leading the way into the building. 

The first floor was expansive. The floor was concrete and covered in old oil stains and water puddles. There were random empty pallets here and there and a freight elevator on the far side. “Let’s avoid the elevator. Felicity mentioned guys like this tended toward paranoia.” 

“And the stairs are going to be any safer?” Leonard questioned incredulously. 

“Here they will. The stairs are open.” she replied pointing to the concrete stairs near the center of the building. They led upward right through the floor above. 

“Oh.” he mouthed, ignoring her smirk. 

“Watch where you step, I’d hate for you to scuff your shoes.” 

Leonard scowled as he followed behind her. “There’s nothing wrong with dressing well.” 

Sara chuckled. “I never said there was.” she replied leading the way up the stairs. She stopped short at the top and Leonard moved around her to see what had brought her up short. 

The entire second floor was filled with mannequins. Every so often there was a box of heads or other loose body parts, but for the most part there were fully put together mannequins standing all around the floor. 

“Fuck this!” Sara said suddenly, startling a laugh out of Leonard. “I do not get paid enough to deal with this shit!” she continued shaking her head. After a moment she huffed. “Come on.” she started walking, weaving around the plastic bodies and muttering to herself. “Fucking plastic monster, gonna take over the world. This is such bullshit.” 

“You watch Doctor Who?” Leonard asked trying not to laugh at her discomfort. 

“I used to.” she replied, letting out a little victorious exclamation as they reached the stairs. She jumped up to the third riser and then turned to make sure he was behind her. “My mom is British, she used to make us watch all those shows you see on BBC. Said they were better than American TV shows.” 

“She’s not wrong.” he replied following her up the stairs. 

“What about you?” 

“Yeah, Lily loved it, got Lisa hooked on it, next thing we know the whole family is watching it every week.” 

“We were more of a Poirot, or Miss Marple family.” 

Sara and Leonard breached the third floor, which was a vast improvement to the previous. There were various tables set up in a C configuration, three large monitors on the center table and two high powered computer towers on either side of those. 

“Looks like he was living here.” Leonard said, gesturing to the camping cot and provisions across the room. 

Sara sighed. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a set of rubber gloves, slipping them on. “There’s no security here. Anyone could have walked in.” she said. 

Leonard started approaching the computers, making a point not to touch anything. Sara followed, peeking under the desk as they got closer. “Wait!” she called out, stopping him short. It was too late though. The black computer screens lit up, starting a countdown from ten in bold red numbers. 

“Shit.” he cursed, as he felt Sara grab a fistfull of his shirt and yank him backward. She didn’t stop though, pulling him along as she ran for the elevator across the room. They lifted the wood gate just enough to slip in and slammed it shut. Sara jammed her hand against the down button then grabbed Leonard’s arm and pulled him down to the floor, bracing them in the bottom corner. 

They had barely started moving before the explosion rocked the building, jerking the elevator to a harsh stop, before jolting the car downward until the brakes stopped them again. 

xXx

Diggle, Lyla, Felicity and Cisco pulled up behind a set of ambulances and fire trucks. They found Lisa in the back of one, being treated for a few scrapes and bruises. 

“Are you alright?” Diggle asked as they approached. 

“I’m fine. Lenny and Sara never came out of the building though.” she explained, hissing as the paramedic applied antiseptic. 

“Rescue teams are already looking for a way in, sir.” a firefighter standing by added. “We’ve got two heat signatures coming from the back of the building. It looks like they made it to the elevator shaft for cover.” he continued. “Heat signatures aren’t diminishing which tells us they’re still alive.”

Lisa visibly relaxed. 

“What are the chances of getting them out of there?” Lyla asked. 

“From what we can see the blast was fairly localized. It was centered on the fourth floor directly in the middle. The blast seems to have radiated outward and caused minor structural damage with the concussive force. As long as nothing shifts, there’s no reason to think we can’t get them out clean.” 

_ “Your very optimistic Captain.” _

The voice was digitally altered and projecting over the entire area. Everyone stopped, looking up instinctively. 

_ “You say you can save them if nothing in the building shifts, well I have it on good authority that the building could go at any minute.”  _ the voice continued _. “I could stop it though. For a price.”  _

Felicity jumped startled as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, reading the text message. “The Complete FBI Case file 26-79854, along with all evidence delivered to the viewing station at the La Brea Tar Pits.”  

_ “I look forward to meeting you face to face Overwatch.”  _

“Which case is that?” Lyla questioned. 

“The manhunt of escaped convict Lewis Snart.” Lisa spoke up. 

xXx

“Are you okay?” Sara asked when the sound of falling rubble stopped around them. 

“I’m never leaving my office again.” he groaned rubbing at a knot between his shoulders. She squeezed his arm before getting to her feet and trying the gate. She managed get it up but on the other side were piles of rubble and broken mannequins. She glared at the dis-articulated dummy’s.

“I hate you all.” she muttered. 

Leonard snorted. “Not a big fan of store front dummies?” he questioned as she returned to her spot beside him. 

“Any one who is, is not to be trusted.” she replied. Leonard couldn’t argue with that. 

“How bad do you think this situation is?” he asked. 

Sara sighed. “I don’t know. The shaft seems to be intact and the explosions didn’t sound very big. I think it’s just a matter of waiting for them to dig us out at this point. You’re not claustrophobic are you?” He shook his head. “Well, then get comfortable. There’s no cell signal in here, so we’re just going to have to wait.” 

They sat in silence for a little while, side by side on the floor until Leonard eventually spoke up again. “Can I ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest.” 

“Sure.” 

“Does this seem like a situation we’re not going to get out of?” 

Sara turned to look up at him. Even sitting he was still so much taller than her. “No, it doesn’t. From my experience and from my limited view of the situation, it doesn’t seem bad enough for us to have to worry about not going home.” she replied, her expression softer than he’d ever seen it before. This wasn’t the face she used with victims or witnesses, this was a face you used to calm a friend, someone you respected enough not to give false hope to. “Besides,” she continued, the expression gone in an instant. “I can’t die on the job.” 

Confused, Leonard asked; “Why’s that? 

“My ex-wife will never let me live it down if I do.”  

“You were married?” he sounded surprised, though he realized he had no reason to be. Everything he’d learned about her so far he’d learned because of their work together. It wasn’t all that surprising that there were things he still didn’t know. It wasn’t as if she knew everything about him. 

“Yeah, for about five years. We seperated after four though.” 

“Can I ask what happened?” 

Sara shrugged. “We didn’t want the same things anymore. Or maybe we didn’t want the same things all along, we just got caught up in the rush.” 

“How did you meet?” he asked, hoping he wasn’t prying. She didn’t seem to mind though. 

“At work. We were both assigned to Quantico. I was a profiler with the BAU and she was in the white collar crimes division. It started out as just two people crossing paths whenever I was around. I traveled with the team around the country all the time to consult on cases. It just kind of evolved from there.” she sighed. “What about you, ever been married?” 

“Almost.” he replied softly. The mood shifted suddenly, much heavier than before. Sara didn’t dare look up at him, too afraid of breaking him from his thoughts.  “His name was Mick.” he eventually continued. “You know about my father, what he was like?” she nodded. She’d done Lisa’s psych eval before she joined the team. It came up. “He was there, he helped me with Lisa, had my back.” he huffed a little laugh. “I told you I’d been arrested a few times growing up, well Mick was usually right there with me.” he smiled a little, but she missed it, still resolutely staring out ahead of them. “And like you said, it just kind of became something else at some point.” 

“What happened?” she asked. He felt her lean into him a bit and he found he was grateful for the comforting weight at his side. 

“He was LAFD. Got called out in the middle of the night, a five alarm fire at a shelter for runaways, Promises House. He’d lived there for a little while when he was a kid, the place meant a lot to him so when one of the kids was unaccounted for he didn’t even hesitate to go back in. He saved her, threw her out of a second floor window and into a tree just as the whole place collapsed around him.” 

Sara wasn’t really sure what to say. It kind of made all of her relationship problems seem insignificant. She had loved Ava once, but Sara wasn’t sure she had ever loved her the way you were supposed to love someone. 

Still unsure what to say, Sara wound her arm around his and threaded their fingers together, laying her head on his shoulder. He tensed for the barest second before relaxing against her in return. 

“You know, Ava hated me when we first met.” she finally spoke, hoping to drive away the melancholy that she had inadvertently settled on him.

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah, said I was an adrenaline junkie. Too willing to go in head first. To be fair she wasn’t wrong and I wasn’t to thrilled about her either, with her neat buns and impeccable suits. She liked the rules way too much.” 

“How did you go from hating each other to married?” he asked. The wobble in his voice was significantly less now and Sara counted that as a win. 

“We had to work a case together. A case we were consulting on with MetroPD overlapped with one of her cases and she got to see more of me than the watercooler gossip allowed. I still thought she was a pain in the ass but she was hot and I wasn’t being too picky. My last hook up was with some random guy in a bar months earlier. It was all very romantic.” 

Leonard snorted. “ _ So _ romantic.” she laughed. “What, uh, what things did she want that you didn’t?” 

“Do you know anything about the BAU?” she asked. Leonard shook his head. 

“Lisa’s mentioned it in passing but I’ve never asked her to elaborate.” 

“It’s the Behavioral Analysis Unit. A team of profilers who are regularly called in to consult on serial crimes. Most notably serial killers. It’s dangerous and it’s not the kind of job you leave at the office. It follows you everywhere. A lot of people don’t last long there. And the ones that do have to learn how to cope with the horrors they see. I had been on the team for awhile, I refused to leave until a certain case was closed, but Ava wanted me to take a leadership role, there were several open at the time and she figured if we both moved up the chain we’d have more time with each other, be in less danger. Ava wants to run the Bureau some day, my goals are not so lofty. She told me in the last argument we had before separating that this job was going to kill me, so out of spite I absolutely refuse to die on the job.” 

When Leonard didn’t reply when she was finished she finally looked up at him, only to find him staring back her incredulously. “That is the dumbest reason to stay alive, I have ever heard. You're going to spite your ex by staying alive? That’s…. Not logical. You're an enigma, a complete enigma. How is that a good…. I don’t….. Why are you laughing, it’s not funny. That’s so fucked up.” 

Sara was leaning heavily against his side, her laughter ringing out. It was a beautiful sound even if she was laughing  _ at  _ him.


End file.
